


Schrödinger's Kay

by chase_acow



Category: Men in Black (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Pie, Time Travel, everyone lives happily ever after
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-21 20:26:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17050001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chase_acow/pseuds/chase_acow
Summary: Jay's double presence in 1969 has changed more than just the number of arms on Boris' corpse. Kay makes a choice with a lot of consequences.





	Schrödinger's Kay

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cricket_aria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cricket_aria/gifts).



Jay dragged his tired ass down the street toward the dinner. He'd napped at some point, maybe, in the space between blinks, but currently his brain felt like the sludge a Solaxiant secreted before cocooning itself. Despite the fog, he couldn't relax, not until he drew up next to the window to see the familiar set over shoulders bent over a piece of pie at the counter.

Slapping his hand on the glass door, Jay swaggered in and took his seat next to his partner. A piece of peach pie sat on the plate in front of him; they must be out of his usual. "Man, just sitting down is the best, Kay," he sighed, stabbing his food to cram as big a bite as he could in his mouth.

"Something I can help you with, Slick?" Kay asked, even putting his fork down to concentrate on giving Jay the stink-eye.

He'd known exactly how much he missed this cranky old bastard, but Jay hadn't really thought about already missing the young Kay and his slightly less prickly manners. He'd been willing to keep his thing for Kay to himself, but in the past there'd been some pretty obvious co-vibing, and now he wondered if maybe he did actually have a chance here.

"Naw, I'm good," Jay said, taking a drink from the mug and instantly dribbled the liquid back into the cup. It was some fruity tea, instead of his usual coffee. Weird. "It's been a long day, a long-ass, fifty-six hour day."

He twisted his head, sighing as something popped and released some of the tension that had been winding him up. Jay groaned and let his head hang, wondering how to even start this conversation, a joke about how Kay was his dad now, or how Kay could be his _daddy_ now. His father’s watch felt like a live grenade in his pocket, warm to the touch when he shoved his hand into the pocket of his slacks.

“Kay-“

“Kay?”

Jay’s jaw snapped shut as he turned in surprise, no one ever joined them in the diner, but there was Oh glancing between them with a bemused expression on her face. He let go of the watch, not wanting to dig a hole he couldn't get out of with the bosslady.

“Kay, is Jay eating my pie?” Oh asked, standing beside him at the bar in her standard issue, yet flattering black pencil skirt.

“It appears so, yes,” Kay said, sitting back and squinting that Texas squint that never failed to make Jay’s blood boil. “Agent Jay did in fact invite himself to your pie.”

“Agent Jay, why are you eating my pie?” Oh asked, her arms crossed over her chest with that one perfect eyebrow raised so that Jay immediately wanted to spill his guts and confess about that one time in the third grade when he accidentally looked up Mrs. Milek’s skirt.

“I thought it was mine, Ma’am, Kay and I meet here before our afternoon shifts,” Jay said, trying to shove the peaches back under the crust for her but mostly smooshing them worse. “Here you go, not too bad, and medical did just clear me of all known pests and parasites.”

He slid off the stool and gestured for Oh to take it while he shuffled back enough so he could see both of them at the same time. His weirdness meter had already passed full up, and one more drop might make him explode. Literally. Make him literally explode. They all had to sign legal disclaimers their third year on job.

“You and Assistant Director Kay meet here?” Oh asked, both eyebrows up now so that Jay’s panic level also increased.

“Yeah, I mean yes?” Jay could hear his voice rising with every word that escaped, and yet he felt helpless to stop the babble. “Sometimes, at least. I mean, they know our order and only the new waitresses bother to give Kay a menu and I think the kitchen staff takes bets on how long it will take them to snatch it back, so I don’t know if you’d call us regulars, but we’re definitely not irregular. I mean, if you know what I mean?”

“I’m certain I have no earthly idea,” Oh said, subtly taking out her cell phone to press the buttons without looking, but Jay wasn’t an Rank A agent for nothing. “Kay, do you know what he means?”

Kay twisted to lean his elbows back against the bar, and somehow he didn’t look as craggy as Jay remembered. “I do not,” he said, crossing his ankles in a faux-relaxed posture that Jay knew put his backup taser in easy reach. “We might have had a muffin when Dee recruited him.”

“Whoa, wait,” Jay teed up his hands in the universal symbol of time-out which all signers of the Declaration of Friend Worlds promised to uphold. “Dee? What? And what do you mean _Assistant Director Kay_? Kay? My partner Kay? Kay!”

The twin looks on their faces convinced Jay he was screwed. Jump forty years into the past to save the man’s life, and somehow Jay still winds up losing his partner. The hurt crawled into his chest even as shame closed his throat. Kay was alive. Kay was alive and promoted and apparently sharing Jay’s pie with Oh instead. Happy. This was _so_ typical.

“Dee recruited you to take his place fourteen years ago,” Oh said, purposefully not glancing to the large windows at the front of the diner where Jay could hear the squeal of tires forming a perimeter at either the end of the block. “Since then, you failed to bond with any other agent and although we’ve given you the rope to hang yourself with, you continue to exceed expectations, escape death traps by the skin of your teeth, and have single handedly devoted yourself to the mission.”

Heaving a sigh, Jay wished he’d taken the time to order a chocolate milk before the next round of shit hit the fan. “You know what, it’s all coming back to me now,” Jay said, squeezing his eyes shut tight as he ignored the urge to let them take him, neuralize him, and dump him somewhere as the cleaning crew for a movie theater three months away from bankruptcy. “I’m gonna go now, maybe get some more sleep, and then everything will be fine.”

By the time he opened his eyes, Kay had his weapon out canted to jab Jay in the back without drawing too much attention to them.

“I’ll take him from here.”

Jay jumped as a hand grabbed him by the elbow. “Griffin! You can’t just pop up like that, my people have a history of hypertension and you and you’re damn poofing is about to give me a heart attack!” he yelled, even as he clutched back at Griffin’s puffy jacket, deliriously happy to have someone familiar with him. Or maybe he was just delirious.

“And who do you think you are, mister?” Kay said, having somehow replaced his non-lethal weapon with one that was very, very lethal, and pointed it at Griffin’s head.

“Woah, now, Kay,” Jay said, stepping between them. “You can’t just go pointing that thing any which way you wanna!”

The diner had cleared out, a line of five agents at the front door made any kind of escape highly unlikely. At this point maybe a dead-end job was better than flat dead.

“It’s okay, Agent Kay,” Griffin said, reaching around Jay to grasp Kay’s wrist. He felt something flow past him and Kay’s eyes glowed. “We worked together once. I’m here to take care of our friend Jay. Will you let me?”

“I-“ Kay glanced at Jay, and finally Jay felt a flicker of recognition. “Yes. Yes, you do what you need to do.”

“Kay?”

“It’s okay, Oh,” Kay said, dropping his weapon and stepping to her side. Their fingers touched briefly and Jay felt his lips quirk despite himself. That old dog did still have some moves. “He’s right. He’s the only who can help this Jay.”

Oh sighed but nodded, she gestured the other agents to stand down and the tension in the room dropped. “All right, but gentlemen, I trust you’ll stay out of trouble?”

“You know me better than that,” Jay answered, holding his hand out to Kay. “But you better take care of this guy.”

Oh smiled finally, and nodded. Kay took his hand, and squeezed it gently. “I am sorry I didn’t get the chance to know you, Champ,” he said, whatever Griffin had shown him must have been a doozy.

“Me too, Buttercup,” Jay said, as a white flash started at the floor and rose until the diner disappeared and he and Griffin were alone in an eternity of white. “Now, you got some ‘splaining to do.”

“Right, well, no one said time travel was easy, did they?” Griffin said, holding his smile until it finally fell under Jay’s unimpressed glare. “Do you know how sometimes when you blow bubbles, two will get stuck together, and they’ll be a funny shape as they drift along?”

“I can imagine,” Jay said, circling his wrist to hurry this along.

Griffin wrung his hands, starting to pace. “So when you went back and changed your past, you presented Agent Kay with a new choice, and the bubble splintered. The place you were was the original timeline, but that Kay made the choice to neuralize himself so he would not have an unfair advantage of knowing the future. That Kay didn’t remember the sacrifice made, or your younger self, he went back to work without that burden, started a relationship with Agent Oh, and lived that life.”

“Great, so without me, Kay lives a golden life, gets everything he ever wanted, and actually knows how to smile,” Jay groused, flopping back into the oversized bean bag chair that materialized to catch his fall. “It’s nice to know I was the one dragging us down all this time.”

“I didn’t say that,” Griffin said hurriedly. “Oh, no, no, no. Remember it was a choice, so there was another Kay who did not neutralize himself. He thought about it all the time; he couldn’t help himself. He thought about the partner who did everything to save him, the young boy who would carry that burden later, and the long stretch of years between him and you.”

“Yeah, I’m sure he pined,” Jay rolled his eyes, letting his head flop back. At least in whatever imaginary place Griffin had brought him, his head didn’t hurt, he didn’t have that gnawing chasm in his chest where his heart should be, but was sorta empty. It was apparently his destiny to be a good looking loner with zero attachments.

“I’m so glad you understand,” Griffin said, nodding until the pom-poms of his hat waggled under his chin. “So this is the other bubble-“

“I’mma cut you off right there,” Jay said, holding his hand up with his fingers spread wide. “What does it even matter? That was my life, but it’s gone. It’s gone, but Kay’s alive, so I wouldn’t trade it, but that’s the real world. This is just some egg waiting to crack. It’s not real. What does anything matter?”

“I don’t know, tiger, don’t I matter? You seemed awfully desperate to keep me breathing the last time we met.”

Jay flailed out of the beanbag, his nose jammed into the floor before he caught his balance and scrambled to his feet. Kay was standing there, right there in arm’s reach, young and whole and definitely not Oh’s arm candy. “Kay!” he yelled, reaching out before he caught himself and let his arms drop stupidly back to his side.

“Jay,” Kay drawled back, closing the distance between them and pulled Jay into a rib crushing hug.

He couldn’t believe it, Jay froze. This wasn’t even one of those back pounding bro hugs, or the wimpy shoulder squeeze, no Kay pushed in until they were tucked together from knee to Kay’s nose in Jay’s neck. Jay brought up his hands, cupping Kay’s shoulders before he rubbed one hand down to wrap around Kay’s waist and the other up to muss the short hair on Kay’s neck.

This was. . . This was everything he'd imagined in his reunion with Kay. Imagined sure, but he didn't know how to deal with it here in real life. The fact that this Kay had only really known him for a day or two, but still wanted to be him blew his mind. He kinda always assumed he was an acquired taste, especially when there wasn't any choice in the matter.

“I missed you,” Kay said quietly.

“It’s been like five hours, Kay, geeze,” Jay said, coughing to cover hitch in his voice. He didn’t know when he should let go, if he let go first or if Kay let go first. Apparently, he’d even forgotten how to hug during the last decade.

“Been a bit longer for me, sweetheart,” Kay said, he didn’t let go completely, but he did take a half-step back to look Jay over. “You don’t look so good though, didn’t future me feed you?”

“Naw, he was too busy eating with Oh,” Jay said, avoiding Kay’s eyes. “But you know. You do what you gotta do.”

“Hmm,” Kay grumbled, eyebrows lowered into a familiar scowl. He stepped to the side so they were both facing their alien friend, and grabbed Jay’s hand in his. “Well I know what I’m going to do. Griffin, would you like to finish explaining?”

“Absolutely,” Griffin grinned, his eyes darted between them. “This is like a bubble on a bubble on a bubble, but only temporary, kept so that the two of you could decide where you want to go.”

“Like what?” Jay asked, cocking his head at Kay, trying to convince himself that neither of them could feel the heart radiating from the blush across his face. He was gonna have to wipe his hand off on his slacks if he didn’t get a hold of himself soon. “He mean like Fiji? We could unleash your pale ass in one of those male onesie swimsuits?”

“Please, I wear short shorts for a more aerodynamic swim, and kindly remember that in this reality you are the old, crotchety one,” Kay answered, though his eyes brimmed with barely concealed laughter. “I asked if we had to go back to 1969. I thought you might be a little more comfortable somewhere else in the timeline. Well, both of us, actually.”

“And this isn’t going to break anything? Some big, master plan?” Jay asked, a touch of weariness making itself known. He couldn't deal with any more whiplash of Kay and his alternate universe girlfriends. “I been bounced around more than enough already.”

“No, it won’t break anything,” Griffin assured him. “This world is as real as any, a whole cosmos out there to explore and a planet of humans and others to protect. It will be that same morning in 2012, and everyone will know you two are partners and the best agents the Men in Black have to offer.”

“Okay then, let’s do this,” Jay said, slipping his glasses on this time so the light wouldn’t bother him, while Kay did likewise beside him. White surrounded them again, but this time, Jay kept Kay’s hand held snuggly in his own.

“Gonna need that back if I’m going to finish.”

“I-what?” Jay shook himself. He was sitting in the diner. Same diner. Same salt shaker. Same sunlight slanting through the windows to warm his back against the icy a/c. Different Kay sitting beside him. Young Kay, smiling at him and holding their hands up so he could glance between their interlaced fingers and the fork lying next to his plate. “Oh, right.”

Jay let go of Kay’s hand and instantly braced for something terrible to happen. It didn’t. He peeked one eye open and glanced around. Same diner, same pie, same asshole sitting next to him smirking. Different tap against his ankle until Jay moved his foot to let Kay slide their legs together.

“This is gonna to be okay?” Jay asked, picking up the fork to take a bite of his strawberry-rhubarb pie.

“I think this is going to be just fine,” Kay answered, biting off a hunk of his weird cheese.


End file.
